The present disclosure is related generally to the field of dental treatment. More particularly, the present disclosure is related to methods, devices, and systems for estimating a surface texture of a tooth.
Dental treatments may involve, for instance, restorative (e.g., prosthodontic) and/or orthodontic procedures. Prosthodontic procedures may be designed to implant a dental prosthesis (e.g., a crown or bridge) in the intra-oral cavity of a patient. Restorative procedures (e.g., other than prosthodontic) may include creating restorations for broken, damaged, or missing teeth, among others. Orthodontic procedures may include repositioning misaligned teeth and changing bite configurations for improved cosmetic appearance and/or dental function. Restorative repositioning can be accomplished, for example, by applying controlled forces to one or more teeth over a period of time.
A scanning system may be used to obtain a digital data representing a patient's teeth in their then current position (e.g., at the time of the scan) which will be considered, as used herein an initial digital data set (IDDS) representing an initial tooth arrangement. The IDDS may be obtained in a variety of ways. This can be used for dental records or treatment purposes.
For example, the patient's teeth may be imaged to obtain digital data using direct and/or indirect structured light, X-rays, three-dimensional X-rays, lasers, destructive scanning, computing device-aided tomographic images or data sets, magnetic resonance images, intra-oral scanning technology, photographic reconstruction, and/or other imaging techniques. The IDDS can include an entire mouth tooth arrangement, some, but not all teeth in the mouth, and/or it can include a single tooth.